Three Tokyo exhibitions for Professor CJ Lim

Links:

design-center.co.jp/english/events/index.html" target="_self">'High-Tech and Tradition', Tokyo Design Centre, 8-20 Dec 2008

CJ Lim's profile

Professor CJ Lim, UCL's Pro-Provost for North America from the UCL Bartlett School, is showing simultaneously at three exhibitions in Tokyo in December, one of which is a solo exhibition at the Nanyodo Gallery of his specially-commissioned 'Dream Isle' project, his vision of 'London'.

Of 'Dream Isle', Professor Lim writes:
'London is a city and cities are alive. They breathe, they grow, they spawn, they die and they dream. … Dreams, like cities, shape us and are shaped by us. Architects would have us believe that the edifices that make up the city are immutable and solid, monuments to their designers' immortality. They are not.  

'In both London's imaginings and reality, landmarks and events assume shifting magnitude and significance, constructing distorted maps of desire and experience. Narrative obeys no logic as London searches for an ever-changing identity imprinted by its waking life. Time, scale and relationships become fluid, and the city is forever on the brink of the strangely familiar and the familiarly strange.'

Professor Lim is representing the UK with three eco-masterplanning projects in 'New Trends of Architecture in Europe and Asia-Pacific 2008-10' at the Art Front Gallery. The Daiwa Foundation, Japan Foundation, and the European Commission and Embassies support this exhibition of cutting-edge architectural and design research positions of fifteen architects from fifteen countries. Lim's exhibit will include his award-winning 'Guangming Smart-city' and 'COS Arable Park, Korea'.

He is also one of twenty architects from twelve countries featured in 'High-Tech and Tradition' at the Tokyo Design Centre. Organised by the Japanese Ministry of Environment, the exhibition focuses on architectural research of environmental and ecological sustainability. Lim's 'Lawn House' presents his eco-vision for domesticity which floats in water and is made from recycled materials; and 'Brockholes Wetland Visitor Centre' is a 'renewable-energy-landscape carpet' to blend seamlessly into nature.

Professor Lim explained his research on reducing carbon emission:
'Local farming and food production activities can contribute to our mission to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and addressing issues of global warming - farmers are the twenty-first century's eco-warriors. The hybridization of agriculture and urbanity provides the opportunity to use low-tech agricultural traditions to create long-term urban and ecological sustainability. Low food-miles will not only reduce carbon emission, but also have many other environmental and social benefits.'

Professor Lim has won a multitude of architectural design awards: most recently, he was the winner of an international competition to design a multi-use district ('NanYu Shopping Park') in Shenzhen, China. He has been awarded four Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) International Teaching Awards for contribution to architectural education, the highest number ever awarded to a single individual.

For more information on the exhibitions and on Professor Lim, please see the links at the top of this page. To read the text accompanying his 'Dream Isle' project, please click here.

Images: 'Dream Isle' (top right); 'Lawn House' (above); 'Brockholes Wetland Visitor Centre' (right)